Thought for Today

How do we respond to the opening ceremony of the Olympics? By now, most people know what took place. A number of individuals who don’t describe themselves within the binary confines of sexuality appeared to mock Da Vinci’s painting, “The Last Supper.”

When many Christians complained, the organizers responded to the effect that the display related to the Greek god Dionysus. There were then some reports that the participants admitted the display did relate to the Last Supper. Due to the pushback, the Olympic committee copyrighted that portion of the opening ceremony and removed it.

Even if what the organizing committee said was true, that is little better. In that case, you’ve still got “non-binaries” celebrating the Greek god of wine, pleasure, frenzy and madness (in Greek mythology, those who rejected him, he struck with madness). By the time of Imperial Rome the Dionysian rites had become so debauched that his worship was banned in Rome (banning a god’s worship was rare).

The next day, various social media platforms were inundated with photos of what appeared to be massive power outage in Paris, proclaiming that was a sign of God’s judgment. As near as I could tell when sifting through information, there were a few power outages of short duration, but nothing like what was being trumpeted via social media.

For the most part, it appeared to be fake news. It wouldn’t shock me if some Christians had jumped to wild conclusions. Sadly, nor would surprise me if some were masquerading as Christians to deliberately make the Christians who had complained about the opening ceremony look bad. On the other hand, it seems that some Christians have become so desensitized to sin that they didn’t care about what took place, dismissing it as more or less nothing.

Other images from that opening ceremony have been publicized as well. Most notably, there was a rider on a pale horse, possibly winged, leading all the nation’s athletes. Many saw that as a reference to Revelation 6:8. Given the other aspects of that opening ceremony, that view sure seems to fit.

So, getting back to the original question: How do we respond?

First and foremost, I think responses of sadness, mourning, and grief are in order. Second, reacting with human anger or rage won’t help: it is the exact sort of response that Satan would like to see. Third, we must remember that the people engaged in these actions are spiritually lost, headed to Hell, and desperately need salvation found only in Jesus Christ. Fourth, we need to call to mind that as God tells us through Ephesians, we don’t wrestle against flesh and blood, but principalities and powers. The issue is spiritual, demonic. Fifth, and perhaps scariest of all, is the potential for God’s judgment. In the end, God will not be mocked, and when His judgment does finally fall (after much patience and many calls to repentance) that judgement is severe.

Jeremiah comes to mind. He spent decades declaring God’s coming judgment against Israel, decades being mostly ignored. How is he commonly described? He is known for being God’s weeping prophet. Over and over Scripture describes him as weeping, groaning, pouring forth a fountain of tears. The world deliberately chooses to ignore God’s warnings. It will not end well.

We will begin to unpack some of these thoughts in the next post.